Biologists at Harvard University have identified the ancient fossilized remains of a pollen-bearing bee as the first hint of orchids in the fossil record, a find they say suggests orchids are old enough to have coexisted with dinosaurs.
Their analysis, published this week (Aug. 29) in the journal Nature, indicates orchids arose some 76 to 84 million years ago, much longer ago than many scientists had estimated. The extinct bee they studied, preserved in amber with a mass of orchid pollen on its back, represents some of the only direct evidence of pollination in the fossil record.
“Since the time of Darwin, evolutionary biologists have been fascinated with orchids’ spectacular adaptations for insect pollination,” says lead author Santiago R. Ramírez, a researcher in Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. “But while orchids are the largest and most diverse plant family on Earth, they have been absent from the fossil record.”
This amber-preserved stingless bee carries pollen from Meliorchis caribea, the first unambiguous fossil orchid known to science. 
